Bio

Mark Melickian is a member of the firm’s Bankruptcy, Litigation and Corporate practice groups. Mark advises companies, their principals, and their investors and stakeholders in both healthy and distressed situations, with a focus on economic and practical solutions to the business and legal problem at hand. In addition to helping clients navigate financially-distressed situations, Mark advises clients on capital-raising transactions, opportunistic asset purchases and sales, business expansions, business transformations, and corporate governance matters. Clients include public and privately held companies, their principals, secured and unsecured creditors, asset purchasers, landlords, tenants, and investors, as well as assignees, creditors’ committees, bankruptcy trustees, receivers, and similar parties unique to the commercial bankruptcy and restructuring sectors. He regularly writes and speaks on issues pertaining to business matters involving business transformation and financial challenges, including serving as co-Editor in Chief of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s treatise on agricultural bankruptcies. He has been published in the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, the Bankruptcy Strategist, Law.com, Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser, DailyDAC, and Student Lawyer. He is currently a contributing author to the treatises Commercial Bankruptcy Litigation (Thomson Reuters), and Strategic Alternatives for and Against Distressed Businesses (Thomson Reuters) and has written for the Cornell University Legal Ethics Library, Wiley Bankruptcy Law Update, and the treatise Ginsberg & Martin on Bankruptcy (Aspen). During law school, Mark won the Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism from the Society of Professional Journalists for his monthly articles for Student Lawyer, an America Bar Association publication. Mark is rated AV Preeminent (5.0/5.0) by Martindale-Hubbell and has been named as an Illinois Super Lawyer by Thomson Reuters and a Leading Lawyer by Leading Lawyer Magazine (Chicago). He has served on the board of several organizations over the years, including roles as a director of Chicago’s Public Interest Law Initiative, an organization dedicated to expanding pro bono legal representation in Chicago, and San Francisco’s Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (now known as the Giffords Law Center), a national public policy organization dedicated to the reduction of gun-related violence in our communities. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the Turnaround Management Association. When he is not lawyering, Mark plays guitar and keys for the Fomites, a Chicago-based band that covers post-punk, post-Mod, alternative British/American/Australian music.